Author of Dirty Word Song, Barbie Doll, and Water Hole: Ric Musten or Mustin, not sure.

[Matthew Bullis]

So I'm transferring some reel to reel tapes for someone whose father
lived in Ohio, and as filler on both sides of the tape, there's a
singer/songwriter who sings about kids using potty talk, with lots of
kids laughing along, a song about if every little girl were a Barbie,
a western song about trying to find a water hole with Uncle Pete, and
another song called That's The Way It Is In The Protest Biz. These
reels seem to date from the mid to late seventies. We can't read the
hand-written notes for this reel, but it looks like the singer is Ric,
not Rick, Musten, or Mustin, or maybe it's not an S and that's part of
the letter U, so maybe Muten or Mutin? A Google search with some of
the lyrics, plus several spellings of the possible name turn up
nothing, and there's no record of the Dr. ever playing Dirty Word Song
or Barbie Doll, so that didn't help in that regard. I'm writing to
this group to see if anyone can solve the mystery of who this singer
is?
Thanks a lot.
Matthew

[Matthew Bullis]

The owner of the reels came to pick up the transfers, and we worked
out that it's actually Ric Masten, who was a Unitarian minister who
died in 2008. Unfortunately, I can't find any cds online, and no audio
samples. I can only find vinyl records on sites like
www.gemm.com
which would work for me, since I have a turntable, but I'd sure like
to hear more of his stuff, even in samples, before I invest. Maybe
I'll get one lp to start with.

[i***@knology.net]

Post by Matthew Bullis
So I'm transferring some reel to reel tapes for someone whose father
lived in Ohio, and as filler on both sides of the tape, there's a
singer/songwriter who sings about kids using potty talk, with lots of
kids laughing along, a song about if every little girl were a Barbie,
a western song about trying to find a water hole with Uncle Pete, and
another song called That's The Way It Is In The Protest Biz. These
reels seem to date from the mid to late seventies. We can't read the
hand-written notes for this reel, but it looks like the singer is Ric,
not Rick, Musten, or Mustin, or maybe it's not an S and that's part of
the letter U, so maybe Muten or Mutin? A Google search with some of
the lyrics, plus several spellings of the possible name turn up
nothing, and there's no record of the Dr. ever playing Dirty Word Song
or Barbie Doll, so that didn't help in that regard. I'm writing to
this group to see if anyone can solve the mystery of who this singer
is?
Thanks a lot.
Matthew

This probably comes too late to do you any good, but I have one or two cassette tapes of Rick Masten singing these and other songs. They were given to me in the '70's by a friend of Rick's named Jim King, who knew him in Atlanta, GA. We are currently packing to move and I came across a very large collection of cassette tapes I collected over a long period, and I will be going through those when I unpack--after the move. I can burn his stuff to a CD and send it to you, if you'd like?

[a***@case.edu]

I would love a copy of those tapes.

Post by i***@knology.net

Post by Matthew Bullis
So I'm transferring some reel to reel tapes for someone whose father
lived in Ohio, and as filler on both sides of the tape, there's a
singer/songwriter who sings about kids using potty talk, with lots of
kids laughing along, a song about if every little girl were a Barbie,
a western song about trying to find a water hole with Uncle Pete, and
another song called That's The Way It Is In The Protest Biz. These
reels seem to date from the mid to late seventies. We can't read the
hand-written notes for this reel, but it looks like the singer is Ric,
not Rick, Musten, or Mustin, or maybe it's not an S and that's part of
the letter U, so maybe Muten or Mutin? A Google search with some of
the lyrics, plus several spellings of the possible name turn up
nothing, and there's no record of the Dr. ever playing Dirty Word Song
or Barbie Doll, so that didn't help in that regard. I'm writing to
this group to see if anyone can solve the mystery of who this singer
is?
Thanks a lot.
Matthew

This probably comes too late to do you any good, but I have one or two cassette tapes of Rick Masten singing these and other songs. They were given to me in the '70's by a friend of Rick's named Jim King, who knew him in Atlanta, GA. We are currently packing to move and I came across a very large collection of cassette tapes I collected over a long period, and I will be going through those when I unpack--after the move. I can burn his stuff to a CD and send it to you, if you'd like?